


Loup Garou

by tmo



Category: Naruto
Genre: 17th Century, Alternate Universe - Historical, KakaIru Mini Bang 2020, M/M, Murder Mystery, Urban Legends, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24665872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmo/pseuds/tmo
Summary: There had been an attack before this one, but this attack seems more like a murder with every passing second.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50
Collections: KakaIru Mini Bang 2020





	Loup Garou

**Author's Note:**

> In the 1600s, Canada, known as New France at the time, saw the beginning of colonization of both longtime rivals the French and the English with indigenous Canadians getting caught in the mix. While fights and conflict were going on, the fur trade boomed thanks to coureur des bois, independent hunters who traded with natives. A band of these runners of the woods have ended up far west while under direction from the governor to map out the region.

Hands bloody and shaking, Iruka waited nervously outside in the dirt as the noises coming from the cabin suddenly ceased. The gurgling had stopped. The frantic movement to stop the bleeding had stopped. 

Iruka stared at his bloodied hands and how they were beginning to dry. 

The door was kicked open and Kabuto stepped out. His hands were wet too. He wandered away from the home without a sound, features cold and lost.

Minato followed suit a second later, not even looking at Iruka. He hung around, waiting for the others to step out. His hands were just as dirty as Iruka's were.

The hunter and his apprentice were the next ones to step out. They didn't linger though. Unlike everyone else, they strode with purpose back to Asuma's cabin, Shikamaru muttering to the older man under his breath.

Iruka nervously watched them go until they slammed the door shut. The longest wait settled into Iruka's bones and he could almost feel eyes crawling over his skin from every corner. 

Because everyone probably was looking. 

He was the one who'd found Madara like that.

Every time he blinked, he could see their captain's desperate eyes staring back.

Holding back the fear and horror, Iruka closed his eyes and willed away everything to no avail. They were in the middle of the woods, alone and now in danger. At least, Iruka was.

Because he had admitted to busting down the door when he heard cries for help. He was the one who'd found him like that.

A hand touching his shoulder jolted him out of the last and he almost punched Kakashi in the face. Dark eyes were reassuring, so comforting Iruka wanted to pull him down into an embrace but he held back as always. Instead, they nodded to each other and Kakashi gave his shoulder a squeeze, leaving no mark on Iruka's clothes. The blood on his hands had already dried.

They all stood around, staggered and restless by the light of the lanterns hanging outside their cabins. All they could do was wait, wait for the last two people of their group to step outside.

When Itachi and Sasuke finally did, everyone who was near perked up as the brothers strode across the dirt path quickly. Iruka found himself glancing at Minato who motioned to follow and he hurried to his feet. Kakashi was already ahead of them, keeping just behind the Uchihas as they banged on Asuma's cabin door.

After not even a second of waiting, Sasuke knocked angrily again and before he could finish, Asuma was already swinging the door open and stepping outside.

As they gathered loosely around in a quiet ring, Asuma stated the obvious, "Lord Madara is dead."

"Murdered," Sasuke cut in and everyone took a sharp breath.

Then eyes started to drift to Iruka who could only swallow.

"He was," Shikamaru said against all odds, stepping up to stare each of them in the eyes. 

"Minato. Weren't you supposed to be on watch?" The younger brother demanded. Itachi tried to calm his brother down but the boy was too heated, eyes burning into Minato's stony face.

"I didn't see anything," was all Minato said.

"Then where were you?" Sasuke demanded, stepping up into Minato's space.

But Minato didn't flinch. "Patrolling."

"Everywhere but his cabin?" Sasuke spat as Itachi held him back, Kakashi stepping in as a barrier between them.

"Calm down, Sasuke. Yelling isn't going to bring him back." Kakashi’s words hit a chord in the young man and Sasuke stepped back, walking off to cool down albeit in annoyance.

"It could have been any of us." Shikamaru was watching them all, looking for their reactions in the lantern's flicker to what he'd said and then his eyes fell upon Iruka. "The door was locked. Someone locked him in."

"Minato was patrolling." Asuma stepped up. "I saw him at the wood's edge from my cabin window."

“When?” Itachi asked quietly and Asuma held up the notebook he’d been carrying.

“About ten minutes ago. Shikamaru and I have compiled everything we’ve seen tonight.”

Shikamaru stepped up next to him and they scanned everyone. “We’ll be taking everyone’s account for the night. We can’t have what happened to Orochimaru happen again.”

That seemed to calm everyone down, remembering how they’d fallen into chaos and the arguing that had ensued shortly after they’d found Orochimaru’s torn up body. Both deaths were eerily similar. 

“Starting with Iruka,” Asuma stated as they both walked back into his cabin, waiting for Iruka to join them.

In a moment of hesitation, Iruka’s blood ran cold and he couldn’t move. There were so many things he couldn’t talk about, so many things he had to keep secret. 

Everyone was looking at him. They all were waiting to see what he’d do, if he’d refuse and put a giant target over his head.

He stepped up, following on weak legs as everyone watched. Even Kakashi was watching him, secretly mirroring Iruka’s worry.

A chair was set in the middle room, waiting for him to sit, and Asuma shut the door hard behind him.

Across the table, Shikamaru was already pulling open the notebook and readying a pen and ink. 

“Alright. Tell us what happened today, from the beginning.” Asuma pulled up another chair to the table with a hard frown and a stare that could turn even warmest person cold.

“In detail. Anything that you can remember.” Shikamaru’s pen hovered over the paper and Iruka fumbled for the right words to say, the things that wouldn’t hurt anyone.

The question was what he should keep secret, what he should be hiding and who was really responsible for this.

“It began at dawn,” Iruka began, taking a shaky breath. “Kakashi and I went out to map out the rest of the western side of the lake.”

“You left exactly at dawn?” Shikamaru asked.

“Yes.”

“And did you see anything before you left? Lord Madara? The others?” 

“Well, Kakashi and I met at his cabin and then we went out right away,” Iruka reported carefully, knowing that he had to tread even more carefully with his next words. “We came upon the lake as the sun was cresting over the trees and then we spent the rest of the day hiking to the western side and mapping out the last bit. Then we headed back home.”

Iruka hoped with every inch of his soul that there were no traces of lies on his face. Technically, he hadn’t been telling lies so far. He just hadn’t told the full truth. 

“And did Kakashi ever mention anything as you were travelling? Anything at all about the others or Lord Madara?” Asuma asked, watching Iruka closely.

“He didn’t.” Which was true. They hadn’t talked about the others. 

“What did you talk about the entire time?” 

Iruka shivered against his own will and cursed his own body. So, he told a truth. “We argued a bit.”

“About what?”

“What we’d do once we got back to Ville-Marie.” Iruka swallowed hard, remembering Kakashi’s frustration and the words they’d exchanged. They weren’t planning to murder someone. They’d been talking about a letter. They were frustrated, trying to figure out what to do now that His Majesty was expecting Kakashi to return to France once he’d finished mapping out the area. “And how he was expected to go back to France.”

“And he wanted to go back?” Shikamaru asked suspiciously, keen eyes seeing into Iruka’s soul.

“Yes,” Iruka muttered, only half lying.

Shikamaru set to writing this all down. His pen scratches were so loud in the silence, Asuma staring at Iruka the entire time. Eventually, the older man asked, “What time did you come back?”

“Not long before the sun set,” Iruka felt so cold under their gaze, feeling so bare in his tunic and breeches.

"And then?" 

"We met with Lord Madara. He was talking with Itachi in his cabin. Then we went back to my cabin for drinks." Iruka didn't mention how Kakashi had gone outside into the moonlit night to find another bottle of wine only to never come back. He skipped over that part. "I wanted to bathe before sleep so I headed down to the rivers. That's when I heard the noises."

They were still so distinct in his mind, bubbling and whistling as Iruka stopped in his tracks to listen. They'd been coming from Lord Madara's cabin. He'd knocked and there was a crashing noise that prompted Iruka to try the door only to find it locked. That's when he'd called out to him, "Lord Madara? Are you alright, sir?"

"Help," was the hiss that jolted Iruka to slam his whole body into the door.

"Sir! Hang on!" Iruka rammed against the door, again and again, and again until it finally gave way and Iruka found the powerful man on the floor, clutching the ragged hole in his neck that was pouring blood so fast. It was pouring onto the wooden floors, glistening until the full moon. Iruka's hands were stained with that very same blood from when he'd tried to stop it, holding it in as best he could while he called out for help.

It was the very same way he'd found Orochimaru months before.

Iruka apparently said all those words even how Kakashi came running in first, then Kabuto, Asuma, Minato, Sasuke, Shikamaru and finally Itachi.

"Good, thank you," Asuma led him to the door and suddenly he was out again, breathing the warm night air as moonlight lit up the other figures who were all watching him carefully.

The next person to go in was Minato but all eyes were still on Iruka as he dragged his tired, nervous body to the side and sat down again. Across the way, Kakashi was watching him. 

Until Asuma called him into the cabin.

Iruka could breathe again, wondering if he had done the right thing. He hadn't mentioned how Kabuto had ranted to him a few nights ago about Lord Madara, the good chance that he'd killed Orochimaru and how Kabuto hated his guts. He hadn't talked about how he knew Minato from before this journey either. That he had a child and an English woman for a wife and how he would do anything to protect that secret.

At least they all had value. They had their secrets but they were important to this group. Minato was a carpenter and woodcutter. Kabuto was their only doctor now that his mentor was dead. Kakashi was their cartographer. Iruka was their resident native and there were so many other men like him out there willing to work with the French because they paid well.

He wondered what Kakashi was saying now, if he was telling the truth and what truths he was telling. No good would come out of reality, about them. It would just make things messier.

Kakashi finally stepped out of the cabin and even watched with bated breaths as he moved to lean against the side of the cabin.

"Kabuto," Asuma called and everyone seemed to fall back into their own thoughts and worries.

Iruka watched Kakashi, how he didn't look Iruka in the eyes. It set off alarm bells in Iruka's head and he had the brief thought that Kakashi said something about him.

He couldn't think that way.

He couldn’t let doubt shake his faith in the man he loved, the man he trusted.

There was still the unshakeable feeling that Kakashi knew something he didn’t.

Iruka wasn’t an idiot though. All the clues were there and he was starting to piece them together. The bigger picture was terrifying though.

Not because he knew who had done. That question only had one answer. It was the answer to the question of why.

Sasuke, the last to be interviewed stepped out into the night. The investigators didn’t step back out. Instead, they closed the door again. The younger of them didn’t stay. Sasuke left, not making eye contact with any of them except his brother. He only broke the stare when he shouldered past his brother and stalked back to the cabin they shared.

Moments later, Shikamaru stepped out. He scanned them all one by one as Asuma slowly walked out, his strides taking him slowly around the circle. His hand was on his pistol as he moved to look each and every one of them in the eye.

“One of you killed a member of our party tonight,” Shikamaru called out, his words making Iruka tremble as Asuma stepped closer and closer. “You sliced his throat. And left him to bleed out.”

It hadn’t been a knife. Iruka had seen the marks himself. There had been too many to be a knife.

“Because one of you isn’t like us,” Shikamaru went on and Iruka’s shocked body tightened up. No, they knew. 

Asuma took another step around the circle.

“And when Lord Madara found that out, you murdered him.” 

Then another.

“And we know which one of you did it.” 

Asuma stopped right in front of Kakashi and Iruka almost couldn’t hold back the scream that was crawling up his throat.

A shot rang out into the night.

The wet thunk of a body hitting the floor was forever engrained into Iruka’s mind and he couldn’t look at who Asuma shot. 

There was a body in the middle of their camp. It wasn’t a human anymore though. It was a wolf.

Suddenly Iruka was being dragged to his feet and he was suddenly dropped into a chair, unblinking in the neverending shock that held his mind. His hands were shaking in his lap. 

“Iruka.” Kakashi's voice brought him back and he shook, wracked with horrified shivers as he cupped his lover's face and kissed the man senseless.

They swore and hugged, touching each other and trying to hold back the sobs enough so that no one else heard. They were safe, hidden away together in Kakashi’s cabin as the light of a fire being started outside peaked out from underneath Kakashi’s door.

Huddled together in the corner, they listened as the wolf’s body was dragged into the fire. All the while, Kakashi kept a hand on Iruka’s chest as if to ground himself and Iruka was grateful for it.

Half in a daze, Iruka asked, “What happened?”

“He was planning on taking everyone out. Just like Orochimaru,” Kakashi whispered, weary from the night and the things he’d had to do. “That’s why he was sending me away.”

“Is that why you were over there?” Iruka asked even though he didn’t really want to know.

“No,” Kakashi muttered, eyes glassy with memories. “Itachi was there, trying to kill him. But he couldn’t.” 

“So you did,” Iruka finished and Kakashi set his cheek onto Iruka’s head. 

“Yeah. And Sasuke saw.” 

At those words, Iruka couldn’t help but hurt for the young man he’d been teaching; the boy who wanted to learn Iruka’s native language, the boy who once looked up to his older brother. 

The same boy who sold out his own brother. 

All Iruka could do was be thankful that he wolf on the ground hadn’t been his own. 

Iruka shivered and held his lover closer to him, hands still shaking and bloody.

**Author's Note:**

> My last story for the mini bang! Tomorrow, the last update to Somebody One Told Me is coming out to wrap things up and I hope you enjoyed all the amazing fics you've read so far and remember to drop a kudos to those amazing creators out there who have participated!
> 
> Here in Quebec, we have a version of the game Mafia called Werewolf that people (read me) love playing at parties. So, this story was born with that combined with the heavy legends of werewolves in my area.  
> I've wanted to write a longer story about Kakashi being a French cartographer and Iruka being an indigenous Canadian for a while but I didn't feel informed enough to really go in depth with it.  
> I can't link to any type of place to give money to but I highly suggest learning about the indigenous people in your area and finding ways to help stop systemic racism.  
> Love you all <3


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